For years fans have beat the drum ala that Armie Hammer should become the next Batman. For a number of years it was like some weird destiny denied as he had the square jaw and looks to be the character. But at one point was deemed too young for the role as Zack Snyder and company wanted an older accomplished actor to helm the role.
But reports are now...that is changing as Hammer seems to be the guy that Warners wants and he'll be carrying that franchise awhile.
Hammer was in close running years ago to be in a rumored film called Justice League : Mortal but it never made it past production. As time passed for years his name would come up in WHAT IF ? Hammer would go on and do other films. But he was constantly linked to Batman oddly with his looks and how fans seemed to want him in that role. It was nearly like the Robert Downey deal with Tony Stark. Fans for years wanted Downey and Marvel Films seemed to agree that this was his character.
But the role went to Affleck and it seemed like Hammer would never get his chance for it. And while Affleck did solid with the role ; after the failure of Justice League ...Affleck took a big part of the blame (for no reason comically). Perhaps it was his impending divorce and battles with alcohol that did it as he would later go into rehab. But for this role Ben Affleck took the blame and whatever plans he had like his solo film was shelved by Warners who decided to move on. It was more sad that WB would blame Affleck for the films bad box office performance as perhaps they needed a scapegoat and someone going through issues that didn't impact his performance was all they had.
A number of folks will point at Hammer's role in Lone Ranger and how bad it did years earlier as a way to dismiss him. But that film isn't really on Hammer. It was more on Johnny Depp and the producer of the Pirates films did that one. The insane budget made it completely impossible it would ever make a profit as well .
In all this seems to be a long time in the making and the next Batman film will arrive in 2021.